Pedal Faster

That seems to be the order of the day lately. We've been -extremely- busy flying. I haven't had a weekend off since Christmas, nor have any of the pilots, nor the maintenance guys.

Life goes on in Kenya, but lots of people are not willing to travel by road just now. So we fly them, so we fly lots. For example, in the last few weeks we've been to Olerai near Bomet about 10 times taking people to Tenwick hospital. Before that it'd been an occasional flight to Bomet.

This past Sunday I was supposed fly 4 folks from Ireland to Mwanza, Tanzania, and then on to Kigali, Rwanda on Monday. Their airplane showed up 2 hours later than we'd originally been told, so we met at 0600 at Wilson and I flew them to Kigali via Mwanza (for fuel), then back via Mwanza to Wilson. Then up to Gatab with a stop at Kambi ya Samaki (fish camp) to drop an AIM missionary before dropping a short term missionary at Gatab. All told, 9.6 hours in the air and a 14 hour day. Tuesday, back to Wilson with a stop in Naivasha to get a family and bring them to Nairobi.

Still Tuesday...off to Musoma, Tanzania to get the Coptic Bishop and two of his people and take them to Kisumu. In Kisumu I picked up Father Elisha of the Coptic church and his family and also James, one of the AIM staff at Mayfield. James is from the Kisumu area. Kisumu was one of the spots of the worst rioting following the election. When flying over it I saw 4 cars moving. The last time I'd been in Kisumu you could barely get through the streets due to the traffic. I'm still not sure how James knew I was coming, the flight had been moved up a day, and I didn't even know he was in Kisumu.

We have to be on the ground 15 minutes before sunset. I took off from Kisumu with an eta in Nairobi that would put me on the ground 25 minutes before sunset (I was scrambling at Kisumu to get paperwork done and get in the air in time to get home before dark. It seems that the officials here slow down when they realize you're in a hurry. I had to find the flight plan officer to file my flight plan. The lady who I paid the landing fee to had to call her supervisor to find the receipt book....argh!!! I'm losing daylight here people!)

My tail wind lasted about to the edge of Kisumu. After that it was a 10-15 knot headwind. egad. I wanted to get out and push.

Sunset Tuesday was at 6:52 pm local. My wheels hit the pavement, according to the GPS and to tower, at 6:37 pm. Whew. Made it. Tuesday was 7 hours of flying.

Today I actually didn't fly, but I did catch up on the paperwork from the previous flights. Tomorrow it's off to Loiyangalani, then Ileret, then Gatab, then Kabarnet, then back to Wilson. Friday and Saturday it's back to Mwanza and then Kigali to pick up the Irish. They'll have been there a week following an adult and a child who have had cataract operations. The operations are the result of a charity effort held in Ireland, and the four people are a news crew from a TV station and a long time missionary who's helped arrange the trip. It was interesting flying them out. I love the accent.

Next week... that's too far away. Lots of flying on the books already, certainly some of it will change, probably more will be added.

This is what I came to do. I pray that God will find my efforts acceptable, and that He will be glorified.